Growing up, the only time I ever felt insecure about being Asian American was when my non-Asian friends made fun of me for lacking body hair. At the time, I had no hair on my legs, chest, or forearms. They on the other hand had hair everywhere – including their backs! I desperately wanted body hair. I even considered shaving my legs to help facilitate hair growth there.

I didn’t know this until I started “researching” this article, but body hair is one of the traits men often exaggerate in order to inflate their masculinity. This is known as hypermasculinity.

According to Wikipedia, “Hypermasculinity is a psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression, BODY HAIR, body odor, and virility.”

If Yahoo! Answers is to be believed, I’m not the only one asking this question:

And then there are teachers out there who perpetuate the idea of the hairless Asian:

I’m not the only one who has been made to feel insecure about this. On this forum I found this very sad post by an Asian American kid asking if his hairless body was “normal”:

It’s that last part that gets me because I’m pretty sure I felt the same way when I was this guys age. For all Asian kids out there, I want to find out the truth. Is there something to this stereotype? Do Asians really have less body hair than other races?

The first answers I found seemed to confirm the stereotype. Wikipedia describes “Mongoloid” as “hav[ing] little or no facial or body hair.” And most sites seemed to agree. I found this one particularly “enlightening” (I use that word very loosely):

People classified as Asians are physically different in some ways from people of European descent. In almost all cases Asians have straight, black hair and dark eyes. They also tend to have less body hair, less facial hair, flatter faces, smaller noses, wider cheekbones, and “shovel-shaped” incisor teeth (front teeth whose back side has a slightly scooped out shape).

And according to this very questionable article, The Hairiest Cultures Around the World, the only category where Asians make the list are the Ainu, the indigenous peoples of Japan, which according to the article have the longest beards (but only because they don’t shave all their lives).

Is this all for real? I couldn’t find a definitive source telling me that the statement “Asians have less body hair than everyone else” is wrong. The best I could find was this, “Sure, there’s a lot of variation among human populations. Some of us are hairier than the others, while others of us aren’t.” And out of everything I read, my gut says that it feels the most right. Like any stereotype this one should be taken with a grain of salt. There are hairy Asians and non-hairy Asians. I’ve seen both with my own eyes! In fact, since my high school days I now have hair on my chest! (Don’t believe me? I’ll send you a pic!) Just like I’m sure there are hairy Caucasians and non-hairy Caucasians out there. (If you are a non-hairy Caucasian send me a pic at koji[at]8asians.com and I’ll post it! No c*ck shots please.)

One thing that age has given me is perspective. Is having little to no body hair even a bad thing? I searched around and other than a few (bad) jokes about feeling like you’re having sex with minors, many women and men seemed to prefer non-hairy partners:

Not sure who in the world would buy such a shirt but the world is a little better place for me now that I know it exists.

I’d like to end this article with a message to the bullies who tormented my hairless body. You guys were just jealous and insecure about your own hairy bodies. I see that now. I forgive you. But I hope you know that in a future life you will come back bald (if you aren’t already).

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Most East Asians from Burma to Japan, East/West and Siberia to Indonesia North/South belong to a male Y-chromosome dna group known as group “O”. Group “O” originally migrated from India to Southest asia and then became isolated from India due to a major volcanic eruption in Sumatra known as the Toba event. In Southeast asia they developed physically characteristics through natural selection including the epicantic eye fold shape, sunda-sino donty, fine straight black head hair and sparseness of body hair. Group “O” displaced an older group of people known as male Y-chromosome dna group group “D”. Group “D” is an archaic almost extinct dna group that walked along the beach from Africa to Sakhalin Island shortly after the first human migration out of Africa. Most of the genetic remnants of Group “D” in Asia have disappered except for remote areas including Tibet, the Andaman Islands, and Japan. In Japan Group “D” is doinant in the Ainu of Hokkaido and Jommon Japanese aboriginies, (The dominant group prior to Yayoi migration from Korea and China). Characteristics of Group “D” are proto-epicantic eye shape, (rounder eyes), thick wavy black hair, a more pronounced nose, (As opposed to gracile to flat nose of many East Asians), and profuse body hair relative to Group “O”. Today about 100% of Andamese Islanders, 90% of Ainu, 60% of Ryukyan and 30% of Mainland Japanese (Mainly in Kyushu and isolated areas in Honshu) still retain the “D” male dna. Both sides of my grandparents were Okinawan and I can tell you I am one hairy bastard. Most of my friends who are Japanese and hairy can also trace their roots back to southern Kyushu or isolated areas in Honshu. Contrary to Yamato belief of homogeneity, the Japanese are a mix of an old, hairy, hunter gather race and a newer, slick, agricultural technology race.

Beeru-Iru

By the way, I can send you pictures of my hairy Okinawan ass upon request.

Interesting! My husband is Moroccan Berber. He tells me the roots of his people are Japanese. He is of small stature, with dark, wavy hair and round eyes. He has wooly legs, dense beard, but sparse growth on his chest. I wonder if his people are D also. Thoughts?

bang2tang

As a Asian girl, I really don’t like any body hair even in male. IMO it looks disgusting rather than masculine. Even Idol boy in Korea get laser to reduce their facial hair.

Kieran Tsao

I have thin hairs, quite a lot on my legs and arms, and I have to shave every day. It’s annoying to tell you the truth, a gf I’ve been with loves to stroke the hairs (because they are thin and light), but it does mean having to shave DOWN THERE often because no-one wants to see a forest down there. Also, it gets hot in the summer, and not to mention hairs getting trapped. Ouch.

To be honest I really don’t know why women prefer the REALLY hairy types – everything mentioned in wiki “Hypermasculinity is a psychological term for the exaggeration of male stereotypical behavior, such as an emphasis on physical strength, aggression,BODY HAIR, body odor, and virility.” – says to me women prefer apes to men? Besides, I’m virile. I don’t need to look like Adonis to have 20 kids, as many arabs and asians (before the 1 child policy) can attest to.

disqus_GUsOiaKW4E

Yes, asian have body hair Ofcourse, but on average it’s less than other races.

My family is very hairy, my legs are like a werewolfs, but I can’t grow a full beard to save my life! My father, on the other hand, can grow a Homer Simpson stumble, in 2 days. I didn’t inherit, his facial hair genes lol,

It’s just genetics, nothing more, nothing less.

Gilda

I’m a girl from middle east, most of the boys here have hairy body and its disgusting for me. My girls friends are all fall in love with a boys who has pushy hair on their chest, arms, legs! But as for me, I’ve choosen korean boyfriend. He doesnt have any hair on his chest, less hair on his arms and legs and even he grows mustache and beard sooo little. The other girls except Asian girls are still exist who doesnt like hairy boys.

bang2tang

I don’t like how aftershave beard looking (black dot on chin + neck, gosh), but it’s weird boys want to grow their beard?

Scott

I sure as sugar wish I was less hairy. I gotta shave my ass! That’s no fun! I need some Asian genes flowing through me STAT.

Chris

Honestly I’d rather be an Asian with less body hair rather than being what I am, a hairy Caucasian. I’ve been self conscious about it my whole life. I’ve always worn long sleeve dress shirts to hide my hairy arms. And it’s thick black hair so even if I shave my arms, there are tiny black specs all over and it looks bad, when they regrow it’s insanely itchy. The only method that looks decent is waxing but it HURTS!!! Feels like my skin is getting ripped off. But it really sucks in hot summers wearing long sleeve shirts. And not wanting to work anywhere where I can’t wear a long sleeve shirt. I’m sure it sounds silly but it is really embarrassing and has led me to be very anti-social and miss out on a lot of life. And I had chronic dandruff as a kid, I was teased a lot for that. No shampoos ever really fixed the problem. Also my parents never fed me right so I was a really fat kid as a result I can barely eat anything or I’ll pack on the fat.

There are more downsides to being white than people realize I think. The only positive is I’ve never dealt with bigotry against me… but I’ve never known love either. A part of me wants to say that I’d rather be hated by some but be able to live and love more freely, rather than not be hated and yet be so alone.

NVN777

Have you try laser hair removal ? But I have to tell you it will take many many treatments and cost a lot of money.

iko: STFU mikey STORMloq, the same garbage that is found in STOMRfront. Aren't you yourself doing the same "...making subjective statements about your own ethnicity, just... – What Do White Supremacists Think of Asians?